The Beloved Disciple and Lazarus?
When I found out several months ago that Dr. Ben Witherington III would be visiting a local church here in Shelby and that he would be giving a lecture, I knew that I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity. And...I'm glad I didn't.
Dr. Witherington's lecture was one of the most interesting lectures I've ever sat through and it was on the topic of the Beloved Disciple mentioned in the Gospel of John. The traditional view, and the view that I grew up hearing from Sunday School, was that the Beloved Disciple was John son of Zebedee, the disciple, who was also part of Jesus' "Inner Three" consisting of Peter, James and John. This John was also the same person who wrote the book of Revelation from Patmos and the three letters of John. It is traditionally taught that John is just referring to himself as the Beloved Disciple in his Gospel and that, for the most part, is what most people believe.
Well Dr. Witherington certainly threw a monkey in that wrench! Not only did he present the idea that the Beloved Disciple(BD) was not John, son of Zebedee, but that the BD was in fact Lazarus. And on top of that, Lazarus was in fact the one who wrote most of the Gospel of John, or at the least, it was put together from a collection of his memoirs.
Interesting stuff huh? Well if this does interest you and you'd like to read Dr. Witherington's arguments for this position, he conveniently posted the lecture up to his blog and you can read it here.
If Dr. Witherington is correct about Lazarus then how does that affect the way we preach the Gospel of John? Or does anything even change? Would the Bible be any less powerful if Lazarus wrote a gospel instead of one of the disciples? Wasn't he a disciple of Jesus too, even if he wasn't one of the 12?
I encourage you to read the lecture from Dr. Witherington and as well as his blog. If you read the lecture, please share your thoughts on the topic as well as anything from the lecture you agree/disagree with. Below is the link to the lecture:
Was Lazarus the Beloved Disciple?
1 comment:
Pretty crazy stuff, most people (including me)are taught to believe it was John son of Zebedee even though it has never been certain.
A lot of what he says seems pretty convincing. If John is the author of the 4th Gospel then it seems odd that he doesn't include something like the Transfiguration or the prayer in Gethsemane.
It would probably be good to read a critique or read something that argues that John son of Zebedee was the author because this stuff is over my head.
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